RoBustack-DL

"Own Your Reading. Byte by Byte."

RoBuStack-DL is a tool for digital repair, cybersecurity awareness, and resilience against mis/dis/malinformation. It allows you to archive and audit web content with integrity.

Installation

Universal (via Cargo)

If you have Rust installed, you can install the latest release directly from Crates.io:

cargo install robustack-dl

Pre-built Binaries (Linux)

Download the latest binary from the Releases page.

chmod +x robustack-dl
sudo mv robustack-dl /usr/local/bin/

From Source

Prerequisites: Rust 1.85+

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

# Install build dependencies
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y build-essential pkg-config libssl-dev

# Install via cargo
cargo install robustack-dl

# OR build from source
git clone https://github.com/code-bush/robustack-dl.git
cd robustack-dl
cargo build --release

macOS

# Install OpenSSL (if not already present)
brew install openssl

# Install via cargo
cargo install robustack-dl

Windows

Ensure you have the Visual Studio C++ Build Tools installed.

# Install via cargo
cargo install robustack-dl

Usage

Version

robustack-dl -V

RoBustack-DL v1.1.0
"Own Your Reading. Byte by Byte."
[GPLv3 + Commercial License]

List posts

# List the last 10 posts
robustack-dl list --url https://example.substack.com --limit 10

List flags

Download content

# Basic download (HTML format, current directory)
robustack-dl download --url https://example.substack.com

# Download as Markdown with images
robustack-dl download \
  --url https://example.substack.com \
  --output ./archive \
  --format md \
  --download-images \
  --image-quality high

# Full-featured download with all options
robustack-dl \
  --verbose \
  --rate 5 \
  --after 2024-01-01 \
  --before 2025-12-31 \
  --cookie-name substack.sid \
  --cookie-val "$SUBSTACK_TOKEN" \
  download \
    --url https://example.substack.com \
    --output ./archive \
    --format md \
    --download-images \
    --download-files \
    --file-extensions "pdf,epub" \
    --add-source-url \
    --create-archive

# Dry run — preview what would be downloaded
robustack-dl download --url https://example.substack.com --dry-run

Download flags

Audit archive integrity

robustack-dl audit --manifest ./archive/manifest.json

The audit command verifies every file in the archive against its SHA-256 hash in the manifest. Reports:

• ✅ Files that match their expected hash
• ❌ Hash mismatches (possible corruption)
• ⚠️ Missing files

Generate shell completions

# Bash
robustack-dl completions --shell bash > ~/.local/share/bash-completion/completions/robustack-dl

# Zsh
robustack-dl completions --shell zsh > ~/.zfunc/_robustack-dl

# Fish
robustack-dl completions --shell fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/robustack-dl.fish

Global flags

Security tip: Use the ROBUSTACK_COOKIE_VAL environment variable instead of passing the cookie value on the command line, to avoid leaking it in shell history.

Logging

RoBustack-DL uses structured logging via tracing. Control verbosity with --verbose or RUST_LOG:

# Via flag
robustack-dl --verbose download --url https://example.com

# Via environment variable (fine-grained control)
RUST_LOG=debug robustack-dl download --url https://example.com

Architecture

RoBustack-DL follows clean architecture with unidirectional dependency flow:

Presentation (CLI)  →  Application (Handlers)  →  Domain (Integrity, Processor)
                                                        ↑
                                            Infrastructure (HttpClient)

Idempotency

Every download is idempotent: content is SHA-256 hashed, stored under content-addressed filenames, and tracked in manifest.json. Re-running the same command produces zero new I/O.

Testing

# Run all tests (unit + integration + non-functional)
cargo test

# Run only unit tests
cargo test --lib

# Run only integration tests
cargo test --test cli_integration

# Run non-functional tests (performance, binary size, provenance)
cargo test --test nonfunctional

# Run with verbose output
cargo test -- --nocapture

Test categories

Mission

We believe in Digital Repair. Just as we repair physical objects, we must also curate and repair our digital environments. RoBustack-DL empowers users to own their reading data, verify its integrity, and preserve it against decay or censorship.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, pre-commit hooks, Jira commit conventions (DSO- prefix), and coding standards.

Security

See SECURITY.md for our vulnerability disclosure policy.

License

Dual-Licensed: GPLv3 + Commercial. See LICENSE for details.